Chap. XIV. 
GUN MEDICINE. 
257 
the windward side, then sit down, rest the elbows on the knees, 
and aim, slanting a little upwards, at a dark spot behind the 
shoulders, it falls stone dead. 
To show that a shock on the part of the system to which 
much nervous force is at the time directed, will destroy life, it 
may be mentioned that an eland, when hunted, can be despatched 
by a wound, wliich does little more than injure the muscular 
system; its whole nervous force is then imbuing the organs 
of motion: and a giraffe, when pressed hard by a good horse 
only two or three hundred yards, has been known to drop down 
dead, without any wound being inflicted at all. A full gallop 
by an eland or giraffe quite dissipates its power, and the 
hunters, aware of this, always try to press them at once to it, 
knowing that they have but a short space to run before the 
animals are in their power. In doing this, the old sportsmen 
are careful not to go too close to the giraffe’s tail, for this animal 
can swing his hind foot round in a way which would leave little 
to choose, between a kick with it, and a clap from the arm of a 
windmill. 
When the nervous force is entire, terrible wounds may be 
inflicted without kilKng; a tsessebe having been shot through 
the neck while quietly feeding, we went to him, and one of the 
men cut his throat deep enough to bleed him largely. He 
started up after this and ran more than a mile, and would have 
got clear off, had not a dog brought him to bay under a tree, 
where we found him standing. 
My men, having never had fii-e-arms in their hands before, 
found it so difficult to hold the musket steady at the flash of 
fire in the pan, that they naturally expected me to furnish them 
with “ gun medicine,” without wliich, it is almost universally 
believed, no one can shoot straight. Great expectations had 
been formed when I arrived among the Makololo on this subject; 
but having invariably declined to deceive them, as some for 
their own profit have done, my men now supposed that I would 
at last consent, and thereby relieve myself fr'om the hard work 
of hunting by employing them after due medication. Tliis I 
was most willing to do, if I could have done it honestly; for, 
having but little of the hunting f urore in my composition, I 
